


A Drop of Luck

by MixerMonochrome



Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Ladybug!Ruby, ML!Rupphire, No one's hurt tho just a little peeved, Non-binary Ruby, Non-binary character, Original idea by jen-iii on tumblr, but that doesn't make an appearance here, car crash, in the past 2 months, just using the idea because I've read way too many ml fics, nor does Sapphire at all so I'm not officially tagging it, teeeeechnically implied Rupphire bc Sapph is Chat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 22:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19029676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MixerMonochrome/pseuds/MixerMonochrome
Summary: "They wouldn't be able to focus on this class period.  Not as keyed up as they were now.  But they couldn't afford to be like this all day.  So they did what they always did when trying to ignore the shitty hand fate dealt them on any given occasion and focused on digging up the bright side of things.One:  They'd likely saved someone's life, or at least kept them from getting grievously injured.Two:  No broken bones, which is more than they could say for someothernotable instances.Three:  They hadn't lost their lunch or wallet when they'd dropped their phone.Four:  They didn't get blamed forcausingthe accidentFive: Since so many bad things happened this morning, it probably maxed out their hypothetical Bad Luck Meter.  Which must mean the rest of the day would be smooth sailing.If they stretched number five, Ruby could even almost believe this morning just meant they were going to get hit with a stroke ofgoodluck later in the day.Wishful thinking?  Absolutely.Was that about to stop them from hoping?  Not a chance."A conceptual Miraculous Ladybug Rupphire AU





	A Drop of Luck

The accident wasn’t their fault. Ruby knew that on some level, they really did. It wasn’t like _they_ ran through a red light when it was clear someone was crossing the street, after all. No, that was the asshole in the dented silver sedan’s fault.

That didn’t help the building anxiety in their gut, though, or the steadily ramping up thoughts buzzing against the edges of their skull, telling them that _of course_ this is what their bad luck was leading up to. Those little moments where everything went wrong? The way it all seemed to be getting progressively worse year by year? It couldn’t have stayed contained to just them, oh no no no. That would be too simple. Too _lucky_. No, this was obviously some sort of bizarre new twist to the bad luck hounding their steps.

How were they supposed to go anywhere if just being _around_ them put people at risk now?

It suddenly felt a little hard to breath.

“.. fr- …. -ving me.” An unfamiliar voice brought their attention back to the world around them, and Ruby blinked, realizing the woman from the crosswalk was still clutched tightly in their arms, though it seemed somewhat ridiculous now that they weren’t rushing in the heat of the moment. The woman was massive in comparison to them, her shoulders at least a head above their own diminutive height, even with the added inches of their hair.

Still, they’d managed to get her out of the road, and that was what was important. They released her and stepped back to a more respectful distance before looking up to meet kind, dark eyes, “Are you okay, ma’am?” They asked, feeling the road solidify beneath them as they focused themself on the task at hand. They looked the woman up and down, but other than a couple tears in her dress, she seemed unharmed. Outwardly, at least.

“I’m fine, thanks to you.” The woman affirmed, something Ruby couldn’t read in her expression, though it made them feel warm all the same. “You have sharp reflexes.”

Ruby rubbed the back of their neck and chuckled, “I do a lot of sports. Good for hand-eye-coordination.” Their gaze wandered back to the street, where the sedan and two other cars were in various states of disrepair, and they frantically reached for their pockets, “Ah shit! We need to call the police - or an ambulance or - or-”

A hand fell on her shoulder, “No need to worry about that, sweetheart.” The woman gestured to a couple other pedestrians, one of which was talking intently into their phone as they surveyed the scene. “Other people have it covered. We just have to wait for the police to get here so we can give our statements.”

Ruby heaved a sigh, their search having come up empty anyways, “Well at least someone did, because my phone isn’t in my pockets, and if I know my luck…” They scanned the crosswalk, and soon pinpointed a familiar keychain attached to the remains of a phone. They groaned loudly into their hands. “Called it.” Their morning was bad enough already. This might as well happen.

And they still had to wait for the police, which meant they'd be late for school.

“Do you think the police are authorized to give me a late slip?” Ruby asked the woman, moving their hands from their face into their hair to coil their fingers in the roots.

“I’m sure they are.” The woman replied, and held out a hand, “Even if they aren’t, I’d be happy to vouch for you. My name is Rose, by the way. I don’t think we ever got around to introducing ourselves.” The woman - Rose - laughed then, a throaty sound that had Ruby grinning in response despite the churning of their gut. 

“I guess we didn't. My name's Ruby." They said, shaking her offered hand. "Is it weird to say nice to meet you, considering…" Ruby flicked their gaze to the road and back again. The sedan's driver was now out of his car, thankfully on the other side of street for now, and in a heated debate with the drivers of the two other cars on scene.

They'd probably have to talk with him at some point, but Ruby was glad to postpone meeting the man as long as possible. Talking with Rose was easier.

"Not at all." Rose replied with a radiant smile, "I'd say it was _very_ nice to meet you when I did, personally. Must be my lucky day."

Ruby grimaced, and heat rose to their cheeks, "I'm not sure 'almost getting run over' counts as lucky, ma'am."

"The 'almost' is what makes it lucky." Rose winked.

Ruby didn't really have an answer for that.

 

It didn't take long after that for the police to arrive, though the process for giving their statements took a little while. The asshole in the sedan tried to claim the light had been in his favor and Rose had dashed out into the street out of turn, but everyone else on the scene agreed his light has been clearly red.

By the time Ruby gave their statement and got checked up on, it was well past the time school started, and they still hadn't sorted everything out. They weren't sure if they could leave or not, and the uncertainty tied their stomach in knots.

"Are you _sure_ you're not feeling any dizziness?" One of the officers asked again, eyebrows drawn in concern, "You're looking faint."

Ruby shook their head, bouncing a foot restlessly, "No, it's not that. I'm just - I should be at school and this is going to sound like the worst excuse I could come up with."

The officer's eyes softened, and she looked at the scene for a moment before nodding to herself. "Tell you what," She said, pulling out a pad of notebook paper and a pen, "We can handle the rest of this without keeping you hostage. So take this -" She tore off the piece of paper she'd briefly written on and held it out, "- and give it to whoever you need to convince. They can contact me if they don't believe you."

With a breath of relief, Ruby took the slip of paper and turned towards school. "Thanks!" They said over their shoulder, before adjusting their backpack and jogging away.

 

Predictably, the entire class turned to watch them enter the room.

Also predictably, the note only did so much to help.

"A tardy is still a tardy, regardless of your reasons." The teacher stated, and Ruby bit back the frustrated growl tumbling in their chest. "As long as it doesn't become a trend, it shouldn't affect you negatively."

Ruby slumped into their seat, pressing the heels of their hands into their eyes in frustration, then biting at the knuckle of one of their thumbs when that didn't let off enough steam.

"Yo, is that, like, healthy for you to be doing?"

Ruby glanced at Amethyst, who'd been sitting to their left at the back of the class for the few weeks since the school year started, and shrugged. "I haven't lost a thumb yet." They muttered, then promptly resumed biting the joint.

"Wild." Was all Amethyst said, summing up their entire morning, before thankfully leaving Ruby to their funk.

They wouldn't be able to focus on this class period. Not as keyed up as they were now. But they couldn't afford to be like this all day. So they did what they always did when trying to ignore the shitty hand fate dealt them on any given occasion and focused on digging up the bright side of things.

One: They'd likely saved someone's life, or at least kept them from getting grievously injured.

Two: No broken bones, which is more than they could say for some _other_ notable instances.

Three: They hadn't lost their lunch or wallet when they'd dropped their phone.

Four: They didn't get blamed for _causing_ the accident

Five: Since so many bad things happened this morning, it probably maxed out their hypothetical Bad Luck Meter. Which must mean the rest of the day would be smooth sailing.

If they stretched number five, Ruby could even almost believe this morning just meant they were going to get hit with a stroke of _good_ luck later in the day.

Wishful thinking? Absolutely.

Was that about to stop them from hoping? Not a chance.

 

Mood restored for now, the rest of the school day passed uneventfully. They ate lunch on their own, headphones in their ears as they mimed the chord progressions in their playlist, and in no time they were on their way back home.

The crosswalk was still littered with bits of metal and glass, but the cars were gone now, and traffic was back to moving as normal. It wasn’t until after they crossed without incident that they caught the sound of approaching sirens. Wide-eyed, they stopped and watched the trio of cop cars speed past. Their gaze traveled up to follow the plume of smoke they could now see in the distance, and they felt a tremor rock the sidewalk beneath their feet.

A firetruck with sirens blaring barrelled through the intersection, sending their hair into a flurry, but Ruby’s attention was caught on the second plume of smoke beginning to curl its way into the sky.

It was closer than the first, coming towards them, and Ruby did _not_ like the possible implications.

When, after a few breathless moments, a stronger tremor rolled under their feet and a third plume of smoke rose even closer than the last two, Ruby cursed with a fervor and turned tail to run home, and they heard the panicked way the rest of the crowd of pedestrians followed suit.

Whatever new stroke of bad luck fate was planning for them could damn well wait until tomorrow. Today, Ruby was _done._

They made it home, keeping a wary eye on the smoke marring the horizon, and threw open the door.

“Ma!” They yelled, sliding inside and locking the door behind them, “Is there something going on on the news?”

A thundering of steps was all Ruby had in way of a warning before a pair of arms swept them up in a bear hug. “Oh Rubes!!” Their mother enthused, pressing her face into the top of their head, “I was so worried, baby. You weren’t answering any of my calls, and the news says there’s some kind of - of _monster_ running around and wrecking things! And I recognized some of the streets it was on and we _both_ know how much you attract trouble and - “

Ruby squirmed out of their mother’s arms so they could turn around and give her a proper hug. “Sorry, Ma. I didn’t mean to scare you. There was a bit of an accident this morning and my phone kind of broke… again.”

That coaxed a watery chuckle from their mother, and she pulled back to better look Ruby over. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? No broken bones, I take it?”

Ruby grinned and stepped back, stretching out to better showcase how unhurt they were. “Not a scratch on me.” Their mother let out a breath, “Good. Better the phone than you, sweetheart.”

Ruby positively glowed at the affirmation, even if it was the same one they went through anytime something broke around them. “Thanks, Ma.” They gave her a peck on the cheek before walking towards the stairs. “I’m gonna’ head up to my room. I have some homework to do, and I’m honestly a bit tired from this morning, so I might take a nap.”

“That bad?”

Ruby winced, then shrugged, “Kinda.”

“Then I’ll just call you down when dinner’s ready.” She waved Ruby away with a fond smile, “Love you.” “Love you, too.”

Ruby shut the door to their room with a sigh, dropping their bag at the door and falling face first onto their bed.

Another shake rattled their room, and Ruby sat up with a groan. What was even going _on_ out there? It couldn’t have been some busted gas line, not with how many different crashes there were, or the way it moved. Their mother had said something about a monster, did that mean there was a person behind this? A terrorist trying to make some sort of point? Worry churned in Ruby’s gut, and they slipped out of bed to their computer.

A quick google search brought up a bunch of videos of - a car? Ruby frowned, and made sure they were searching for the right information. But no - all these videos were from the past hour, and a lot were from local news stations. Ruby clicked on the most recent one, and put their chin in their hand as they watched.

This one looked like it was shot from the upper floors of an apartment building. The car sped down the road, weaving through traffic in motions almost too fluid to be real as a line of cop cars tried and failed to trail after it. It approached a denser grouping of cars, with no gaps it could realistically slip through, but it didn’t even start to slow down. Ruby cringed, but kept watching, still unsure what constituted their mother’s use of the term ‘monster’ or how a simple car chase could cause the kind of damage they’d seen at a distance.

The car split itself into strands of liquid metal before it touched a single car, then flowed back and solidified into - 

Oh.

Oh that made a lot more sense.

There was now some sort of cyborg man standing in front of the waiting cars, far larger than any average human being, and with shiny automobile parts attached to or hovering around him. He yelled something unintelligible from the camera’s distance, gesticulating wildly at the slowly encroaching cop cars as traffic swerved to a stop around him. Then, with a sharp motion of his arm, several nearby cars ripped apart at the seams and arrowed towards him to join his already vast array of metal. With another few shouted words, the cyborg liquified again and flew off - but not before shooting a large orb of metal in the direction of the cops.

The video cut out before the metal landed, but Ruby could imagine the impact too easily.

“What the _fuck._ ” They managed to say, hands knotting themselves in their hair as they tried to process this. That was something straight out of a movie, not something that could actually feasibly be happening. That’s not how metal worked - that’s not how _anything_ worked.

They kicked themself away from the desk to better curl up and think, unaware of the little black and red jewelry box that jostled at the edge of the desk before tumbling to the ground and popping open.

They did, however, notice the ensuing burst of light, and they promptly flailed and tumbled out of their seat.

Ruby groaned from their place on the floor, rubbing at their temples, and they heard their mom call from somewhere downstairs.

“Everything okay up there, honey bunch?”

“I’m fine!” They called back, “Just fell off my chair.” “Alright, be careful up there!”

Ruby grumbled, and sat up. Only to come face to face with some sort of - Big. Red. Bug?

“Hello, Ruby.” The thing beamed, it’s big blue eyes shining like this wasn’t the second most surreal moment of Ruby’s day. “It’s nice to meet you! My name is Tikki, and I think we can help each other.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a one-shot for now, mostly done to try and get out of a writing funk, but also who knows ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
